Earl Campbell: Goodell has to 'let football be football' (VIDEO)

Houston Oilers former running back Earl Campbell is introduced before a game the AFC Wild Card playoff game between the Houston Texans and Cincinnati Bengals at Reliant Stadium.(Photo: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)

Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell is the latest current or former NFL player to complain that the league's player safety initiatives have the potential to turn the game into "flag football." At some point in the past five years, players such as Troy Polamalu, Bernard Pollard, Phil Simms and Lance Briggs have all used the flag football comparison, with the 1977 Heisman Trophy winner recently adding his voice to the chorus.

Campbell's distaste follows the league's recent rule change restricting players from using the crowns of their helmets to hit defensive players when running the ball, something he discussed with CSN Houston.

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A few key quotes from the interview:

"Number one, I think football is a very physical game, no doubt. I think we learn that when we're young. With the NFL changing that rule, I don't think it's going to be good at all. I think Roger Goodell at some point has to stop and let football be football. The way I ran the football, the way I played, I played football with my whole body which I think the game should be played at certain positions like running back."

"I played football with my whole body — my hands, my head, my face — I did it all."

"I think you're taking away from the game of football. I think there are some other things you can do. As far as the running back, I know I wouldn't have lasted because that's how I played football."

"I think what they ought to do if they really want to change it all up, give guys like we started football in elementary — flag football — and everybody will know not to bump into nobody."

While Campbell isn't alone in his dislike of the new rule - Bears running back Matt Forte called it "absurd," - it's unfortunate that the Oilers legend, whose punishing style most likely led to an array of serious health issues in the 26 years since his NFL career ended, is taking a stance against something that could possibly prevent other players from suffering a similar fate.

A Sports Illustrated story last July described some of the physical peril Campbell has gone through since leaving the game.

But eventually the game hits back, and every stiff arm is returned tenfold. As Campbell charged into middle age, arthritis froze his knees, back and feet. He developed gout and diabetes. Three bone spurs had to be removed from his vertebrae. He underwent more operations than he can remember. Around 2000, still only 45, he played his last round of golf, and soon after he required a wheelchair. He often slept on the couch in the living room of his two-story house because he couldn't make it upstairs to bed. Panic attacks, which had hounded him since retirement, grew more frequent. He wore sunglasses to shield himself from crowds. "I was not comfortable being Earl Campbell," he says.

He started taking Tylenol with codeine, then graduated to OxyContin. He popped as many as 10 pills a day, downing each with a Budweiser. "I didn't do no Scotch or wine or mixed drinks," Campbell says. "I'm from Texas. I'm real Texas. My deal was them four horses." He skipped business meetings and dozed off at public appearances. "He didn't want to do anything," Janecka says. "He was high all the time."

One weekend in 2007, ahead of the 30th anniversary of Campbell's Heisman, 18 fellow winners traveled to Barton Creek to celebrate a legend, but all they found was a cautionary tale. Campbell struggled to remember names and dates. A reporter wrote that he took six minutes to walk 40 yards. "I stay focused and prayerful that I won't have to deal with the situation of Earl Campbell one day," former Heisman winner and NFL running back Eddie George said that weekend.

In September, the Associated Press reported that Campbell was undergoing treatment for nerve damage after the doctors ruled out concerns that he might have Lou Gehrig's disease.

"I did something to my body to get that, and you know what I did," Earl Campbell said at the time. "I think some of it came from playing football, playing the way I did."

Campbell is not one of the 5,500 plaintiffs in the concussion lawsuits against the NFL and seems to view his current health problems as a willing sacrifice he made in order to achieve gridiron greatness. It's a sentiment that you hear frequently in current NFL locker rooms, that many players are willing to pay the price later in order to achieve glory and financial gain now.

"The league is genuinely trying to address safety issues," fellow Hall of Famer Jim Brown told USA TODAY Sports earlier this week. "The commissioner is dead serious about that. Now how they do that and the rules that they make will always be controversial. There's always more than one point of view. So I don't have any answers to any of this, because a lot of it is what the doctors found out."

Pro football is almost certainly going to leave any of its participants with some painful permanent souvenirs of their time playing the game. And even in his current condition, Campbell may still feel that the years of pain he's endured was worth the gridiron accomplishments. But if the league can take measure that will prevent future players from having to calculate such a dire post-career equation, why fight steps that could possibly help that?